Failure To Honour OSP’s Invitation Is Punishable By Law- Lawyer

Private legal practitioner, Bobby Banson, says failure to honour an invitation by the Special Prosecutor is punishable by law as one could be jailed between two to four years or fined.

He stated that the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s Act perceives it as an offence if a wanted person fails to appear before the authority.

Bobby Banson noted this while addressing the case of the former Secretary of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining(IMCIM), Charles Bissue, who has been declared wanted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

“When you are invited by the OSP, and you do not comply with that invitation or the OSP requires your presence or requires you to bring a document, and you do not honour that invitation, that in itself is an offence in the OSP Act,” He explained.

The OSP Act says that “if you refuse to comply with the lawful demand of the OSP.. so it could be an invitation. So if they invite you and you exercise your right that I will not honour the invitation, I believe they will go to the next step, which will be to require your presence.”

Mr Banson further noted that the OSP has the power to order one’s arrest without a warrant.

“Looking at the powers of the OSP, the OSP can arrest you, investigate you, and exercise lots of powers under the Act without necessarily going for court orders to do so,” he stated in an interview on Joy FM.

Meanwhile, Charles Bissue says it is unfortunate that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has published his photo as a wanted man as though he was a fugitive.

“I am within the jurisdiction. It is unfortunate that my photos have gone out as though I were a fugitive, but that is not the case. So everyone should calm down. I will go so that the truth is revealed,” he said.

Mr Bissue said he would avail himself for the Special Prosecutor to furnish him with the information he wanted, adding that it “is an opportunity to redeem my image more.”